Argh! Lag! (please post any Lag related comments here)

[scorge]

Out of interest i had a look at the GOA website and wanadoo portal

http://www.goa.com/en/index.php

http://www.wanadoo.fr/bin/frame2.cgi?u=http://webgames.goa.com/wanadoo/fr/


The only press releases i have found on the GOA site are seven months old, and are both about DAOC, I am beginning to think the DAOC is the only major source of income for GOA.

I was under the impression a while ago that they dealt with other Massive multiplayers. Seems that GoA is not as big as i first thought.

I think if i were mythic i would be worried about GOA looking after the European market. Think mythic might have learnt its lesson now when choosing the cheapest bidder and hosting for there product across europe.


those webpages dont say "Domineering Company in the european MMORPG field", more like " little lost sheep and cheap hosting"

here is a little gem of a quote from the Goa.com site

"and, of course, a state-of-the-art technical service which benefit from Wanadoo's hosting platform."

 

[Zede]

The current lag is complete bolox tbh, never had it so bad.

1.71 is lag disaster.

 

[Zede]

Thinks of the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with regard to how GOA think of uk peeps

 

[knighthood]

Thinks of the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with regard to how GOA think of uk peeps

Hehe aye

The holy Graillag

 

[Killswitch]

And now for something completely different...or not

Right...for what it's worth, here's my two cents on the whole lag thing.

1) Despite appearances, it is probably very unfair to assume that GOA staffers either don't want to fix the lag or aren't trying to fix the lag

2) Again, although GOA are very quiet on the subject, there's a good chance they know better than us whether they are losing money/players

3) I would be very surprised if anyone at GOA (or anywhere else) finds threats and personal abuse very motivating

The amount of lag on Alb/Excal has been pretty bad. Almost ruined Tilda's ML3 when he LD-died (along with about half the raid iirc) halfway through. I'm sure ALL the GMs heard about that! The only thing worse than game lag at the moment is the FH whine!

Now, all I can think is that if I didn't have to read FH, didn't have to reply on FH and wasn't involved in FH except as basically a volunteer, I certainly wouldn't trawl through 20 pages of "OMG LAG FFS!!!!!" and "KILLSWITCH SUXX0RS!!!111 FIX LAG OR DIE IRL!!!!" posts.

If this is a GOA problem on GOA servers, I would expect an apology at the very least, since the lag has made the game almost unplayable for long periods of time. If this is an OpenTransit issue, I'd like assurances from GOA that spankings have been administered and that OT are working on this as a priority.

I think that what the community (both via FH AND camelot-europe.com) needs is regular, official updates. What annoys me most is simply the feeling of being kept in the dark. I can't do anything to help the lag, but some news like "we think it might be this router or that server".

If everyone keeps up the same mindless abuse, threats and spam, all you're going to do is forces the GOA GMs off FH. They don't need to read this site or defend themselves. If you have a legitimate complaint, take it to RightNow. If you want information about the problems, just ask. Maybe try saying "please" and "thankyou". I'm the stereotypical BOFH and I know that politeness goes a long way with me...and human sacrifices always help too!



As for you GMs (if you're still reading this!), don't think I'm letting you off either! Don't treat your users/customers like they are idiots. If you give us more information, let us know what's going on, generally make it look like you're working your arses off to fix these problems (which I'm sure you are, but being busy and looking busy aren't always the same thing!), you will get more positive feedback.

There are always going to be the selfish, childish morons in this kind of game who will just shout and scream and throw their toys out...I'd expect that. However, when you have so many people, some of them reasonable and nice people (to the best of my knowledge) cancelling subs (or threatening to) over a technical issue, then that suggests it's not being dealt with in the best possible way.

Players: lay off GOA and let them sort these problems. DAOC is still a great game and has a great community. Don't alienate the GMs and force them off the boards. Having Req/Zen/Xal on here is a good thing for us...they don't have to be here.

GMs: Please give us more information. Make regular announcements on the Friday News letting us know what's going on. Maybe consider requests for free days or something...maybe run a nice event where we can throw pies at you and win respec stones or something!!!

<WHINE>

AND FGS FIX THE LAG PLZ!!!!

</WHINE>

 

[Thor666]

I wish i could move my Prydwen Chars to the us...

 

[pomalllka]

@ Eviross / GoA GM's

Guys, there has been no word on your website for the last 4 days now regarding the problem your playerbase is having using the game.

Is it going to take your playerbase having to email Mythic again to actually get some information and action from you to just give basic updates to your CUSTOMERS as to when we can start using the service again ?

Those of you who want it this is mythics feedback link, i suggest if this lag is still here on Thursday we start 'communicating' with the organ grinder directly to get some action.

http://www.camelotherald.com/feedback.php

As an aside, i forwarded your 'pingplotter r'us etc' post to hardware support at one of the UK's larger ISP's. They really failed to understand the need for this (after the laughter stopped at the request)as they employ network specialits to look after the network infrastructure. Maybe things are different in France.

So far you owe us at lease 2 days and counting free playtime.

regards

Poma

 

[Gear]

I agree with you but you're forgeting one thing. All those people complaining now (maybe in the wrong way, but I'm not going to judge that) have been patient for a lot of time, while paying money. I expect a lot of frustration to come from huge lagspikes and continuous LDs. At some point I loged in after a yet another LD y'day and the first thing I did was /as Fuck off GOA. Frustrated? Yes.

And tbh, I had enough with information from their part. It turns out that they don't even know what they're talking about. I don't want to know what the problem is, I want to see it fixed. As a paying customer I have to receive what I'm paying for, instead I get... this!

 

[Hawkwind]

Would agree with you that none of this should get personal. However, tempers will flair when you spend many hours trying to accomplish something and it fails through no fault of your own. Anyone at the Customer Support end of the GOA business should not just expect abuse, they should accept it. As long as it is directed at the product or company. If, it gets personal then they have right to walk away from the situation.

The very fact that there has been no web site news or post on these boards regarding the post 1.71 lag/LD's shows their apathy in my opinion.

The only way to show GOA that poeple are fed up is to stop paying them until it is sorted out. By hitting their wallets you will affect them more than anything written on these boards or any other form of communication. Cancel renew on your subs today. Even that should register on their accounts forecasting system for forward billing. Questions will be asked and things escalated.

If that fails Dark & Light looks sweet

 

[Jace]

Just sent a feedback form, cba waiting til Thursady for a problem which has been about for far too long now.

As I said in my feedback posting 'I would hate to see this game die in Europe due to the technical incompetence and poor customer service of your European partners.'

Sad but true.

 

[Daedalus]

If that fails Dark & Light looks sweet

Does not, they should hire a proper modelling guy/girl!
I mean, just look at this:

Even Morrowind looks better (albeit with a few tweaks)

But yeah.. GoA should really post to their website more often.. And not just "There's a problem and we're working really hard to fix it", but also report what the problem was and how they fixed it. Even though 99% of the players won't understand a thing of all that technical mambojambo, it does allow GoA to show "We care, we let you know what's going on, we're doing our best to fix it. Look!".

 

[Hawkwind]

Just sent a feedback form, cba waiting til Thursady for a problem which has been about for far too long now.

As I said in my feedback posting 'I would hate to see this game die in Europe due to the technical incompetence and poor customer service of your European partners.'

Sad but true.

Well put.

 

[Cracked]

I also canceled the automatic renewal of my accounts. Im playing WoW beta atm and i will prolly start playing that game instead of going to the U.S. No way in hell i could do ToA again on a new server.

 

[Chronictank]

Off to US also soon as i get ml's out the way for those i promised them to

 

[Thorwyn]

Killswitch, I have to disagree to some extend.

1) Despite appearances, it is probably very unfair to assume that GOA staffers either don't want to fix the lag or aren't trying to fix the lag

That´s certainly correct, I also think that they´re doing their best to try and solve the problem. But so far, they´re not exactly successful in doing so. We´re facing a technical, reproducable problem, not a dodgy one-time bug or exploit, nothing with direct influence of the players (i.e. cheats) or anything. And we´re facing it for months now. Most people DO have a pretty high tolerance, but there´s a limit for everything and we´re about to reach that limit.

2) Again, although GOA are very quiet on the subject, there's a good chance they know better than us whether they are losing money/players

Mabye, but it´s still important to tell them. Working in the gaming industry myself, I know how easy it is to just "forget" about problems and pretend that the majority of people is playing happily. If the community doesn´t show them how severe the problem is, they will be tempted to treat this problem in the same way.

3) I would be very surprised if anyone at GOA (or anywhere else) finds threats and personal abuse very motivating

So what about keeping US motivated? It´s not my busniess to keep GoA staff motivated. If they´re not motivated enough to be able to work on a project like this, then they have chosen the wrong job. I´m paying for a service they´re offering and I want to get what I´m paying for. Motivation is not my job. However, personal abuse can´t be tolerated, that´s of course true. Critics is ok as long as its objective and fair.

Whinethreads on FH won´t solve anything. But they´re important to a. give frustrated players a way to ventilate their frustration b. give GoA a more or less representative picture of the mood of their customers (trust me, forums ARE an important tool for that) and c. they´re giving players the confidence that they´re not alone with their problem. DAOC was supposed to run lagfree after 1.71... or so they said. If I didn´t read FH and all the whine here, I probably would have checked my ISP and network , RightNow´ed the lag, send them DXDiags and whatnot to make sure the problem isn´t on my side. Now I know that I`m not alone and that there´s a good number of players having the same problem and that there´s something wrong on GoA´s side.
Whine doesn´t solve anything.. but it doesn´t hurt either. There´s more than enough useless spam on FH with even less effect. Complaining about whinethreads and players who just want to state that they´re pissed off just creates an environment of tension and summons the "Censor!"- Criers.

If everyone keeps up the same mindless abuse, threats and spam, all you're going to do is forces the GOA GMs off FH. They don't need to read this site or defend themselves.

Again, true. But if they don´t, it´s their own fault. If they can´t stand the fire and don´t read/post here, they´re losing a chance to stay in contact with the playerbase and that´s even more deadly for a business as lags or WoW. As a professional, you should know how players react and that they´re very easyly upset. It´s GoA´s move, it´s in their hands to stop the whine and receive their (deserved) props for their job. And trust me, the "Thanks you´s" and "Well done"´s WILL be here once the lag-issues are solved.

 

[Killswitch]

You know what guys...you are totally right. Absolutely. 100%. Problem I see is that we have 2 choices;

a) Support this game (which, whether we like it or not, means supporting GOA). Give them more time to fix it. Give them PingPlots if they need it.

b) Leave and let the game die with some dignity left. It's done well for 3 years or so.

Now, I work for $COMPANY. We are owned by $HUGECOMPANY. $HUGECOMPANY have a contract with $TELECOM. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with $TELECOM. I've been waiting 12 months for them to sort out our new WAN link. We've tried everything from begging to threats of legal action. Sometimes there is just nothing that can be done to speed things up.

Now, this sucks for my users. It sucks for my company. It sucks for me when I can't get on FH during the day. It plain sucks. Now, if I was working at GOA (givf job!) I'd be tearing my hair out. I like this game, dammit! If these lag problems CAN'T be fixed, then let's all go to WoW or summat.

Requiel/Xalin/Xenythe/E&Es - Can this lag be fixed?

There's the question...see below (hopefully) for the answer.

"Next week, on Days of our Lives..."

 

[cemi0]

All in your post seems fair. But you are forgetting one thing. Many of us have been patience for a long time now. We have had more or less lag since NF was released. Sometimes the game is playable, other times it just brings alot of frustation.

You cant really do much ingame with these huge lagspikes we have experienced the past few days. Not to mention massld making it almost imposible to organize any raids. (Althought I managed to pull a Dragon Raid through on Midgard)
Yesterday my GG experienced like 3-4 massld even in New Frontiers zones.
Doesnt seem to me that the patch fixed alot of lag issues. Etc its been mentioned on these boards before that some of the ToA lag partle was a game code error since US had it too. However, to me all it did was to move lag to NF/Classic zones :|

I am sure GOA are trying to fix these things, obviously they got taught differently in their tradeuniversities (some strange sales methods eh?).
I cant see one good reason why GOA would destroy DAOC. Afterall, who are gonna employ them when they get workless? Doubt any new MMORPG would hire GOA to host their game.

To GOA: Keep up the motivation to find these bugs so we will be able to enjoy a non-laggy DAOC and please inform us just abit more whats going on. Maybe make a subsite for servermaintain so you wouldnt spam "mainsite".
Oh, and do you still want these pingplots coming in or?

 

[Killswitch]

Weird. I take it one of the mods has decided to go for the "one whine to rule them all" angle. I like it

 

[Flimgoblin]

For anyone frustrated at the lag - stress relief http://www.miniclip.com/paintball.htm

PS. consolidated all the lag discussion since it was lagging my brain and it was pushing my HB thread down the page!

 

[Flimgoblin]

Oh, and do you still want these pingplots coming in or?

I'd imagine so

 

[Firebirth]

id say server populations in all 3 languages have dropped by around 30-40% in the last year, so something significant is happening, Brocilande had the highest population of just 2000+ at prime time, i remember when it used to be full every night...... excaliber was once 5th most populated server now its dropped to about 8th.

 

[cemi0]

I'd imagine so

Just heard they asked us to stop sending them in or smth.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Just heard they asked us to stop sending them in or smth.

they were asking for pingplots for the OT stuff. After a while OT wanted traceroutes instead. Pingplots are still good though as they can help identify other problems - not everything is OT

 

[Oro]

Was lagging like a monster last night. Actually been lagging like buggery last few times I've tried to play. Eventually logged off as can't play my cleric properly when suddenly you're looking at a near-zero health bar after a few seconds of nothing happening.

Logged into WoW right after and it played fine without lag.

Not conclusive by any manner of means but both games are hosted in France.

Whether its GOA's fault or not, the perception is that they have a problem of their own to work out.

 

[Jobil]

a) Support this game (which, whether we like it or not, means supporting GOA). Give them more time to fix it. Give them PingPlots if they need it.

b) Leave and let the game die with some dignity left. It's done well for 3 years or so.

b) for me if this isn't completely fixed, gone and forgotten before WoW goes retail. auto renew off, ill be watching the forums if the accs run out, no idea when they do, but they're on 1 month auto.
unless i see happy sunhiny threads about 15ms latency 24/7 very very soon, GOA can frankly (no personal offence) kiss my danish ass baj baj

 

[Svartmetall]

Logged in today on Excal, 12:20, what's the first thing I see? Yes, of course, laglaglaglaglag.

Fuck this.

...

 

[Dwali]

lol this lag is insane...i´m in AC farming cash with my necro and bb and its not fun to get 2 red dots when u have pulld 2-3 red con mobs and when lag drops u are almost dead....Time to wake up GoA and smell the problem.work on it instead of looking at the problem us players have experianced the last few days!

So my advice is to try put as many ppl u can on locating this problem before it gets any worst and u use your only income to pay your bills.!

and i heard before that GoA was gonna host WoW server...pls don´t...u ruin that game to then

 

[Teslacoil]

Requiel/erivoss

ok i have calmed down a bit since yesterday

But seriously fellas ( GM' in particular ) , don't you feel like monkey's in a cage that are getting poked in the arse buy 100 kindergarden kids ?

do something yourselfs , you all have to have something to say to start making progress ? cause i can't belive really that you aren't fed up with what's happening , well are you ?

if you can't do anything ? and if it's your job this to take shit cause of a company you work for can't take resposibility , seek out a new job for heavens sake. GoA are giving you as much crap as they are giving there customers.

how the hell can you at all take this crap ?


/respect to you if you can take that crap without going insane
/condolences if you can't take the crap

 

[Takhasis]

sigh...ibtl +1 etc

waits for Tilda to tag it onto the UNMISSABLE thread https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?t=47116

funny how peeps ignore it just to get their name to the top...

 

[Svartmetall]

I will certainly never again play a game hosted by GOA.

I wish now that I had started playing on the US servers when I started playing DAOC.

...